Chandigarh, July 25 -- The Chandigarh Zonal Office-I of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted midnight searches across multiple locations in the tricity, busting illegal call centres that were duping foreign customers under the guise of providing non-existent technical support services. The fraudulent operations targeted overseas clients, particularly in the US, posing as authorised tech support providers for well-known companies like Microsoft, HP and Arlo, the ED said in statement. The scam involved creating overseas counterpart companies to receive payments from unsuspecting customers, which were later routed to India through banking channels and hawala networks, said ED sources. As per ED, one of the key firms under the scanner is FSAL Technologies Pvt Ltd. The company ran a fake tech support centre through its overseas entity, Bios Tech, based in the US. The firm falsely claimed to provide support services for Microsoft, HP printers, routers and other hardware, yet failed to provide any agreements or licences from these companies authorising such services. Investigators revealed that FSAL controlled Bios Tech's backend operations, including monitoring payments and handling finances. The company's website was also linked to "geeksworldwidesolutions.com", a spoofing website mimicking Geek Squad USA, a well known American tech support company. Call transcripts obtained during the raids exposed fraudulent practices, while the employees lacked any real software or BPO expertise, indicating the entire operation was run purely for scamming foreign nationals. The call centres were operated in a highly clandestine manner, hiding details of promoters, directors and team members, the ED found. Similarly, Terrasparq and Visionaire, were found indulging in similar fraudulent tech support activities since 2016. These companies purportedly offered services to a US-based firm CTS Mobility. Recovered emails and WhatsApp chats revealed how Microsoft popup scam links were created and foreign customers' credit cards were misused for periodic fraudulent payments. The companies falsely advertised services, such as mobile device management, network and device management, and Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) on their websites, without any valid licensing or promoter details. Shockingly, the websites showcased images of fancy IT parks and corporate offices, which were completely fake representations, according to the ED statement. The CDZO-I team has seized digital evidence, call recordings, fake agreements and financial transaction records during the raids. A detailed investigation is underway to trace the entire fraud network, financial trails and overseas connections, the ED said....